->ShortDescBot: ShortDescBot adding short description "Species of damselfly"

2021-03-16T09:27:47Z

ShortDescBot adding short description "Species of damselfly"

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{{Short description|Species of damselfly}}
{{italic title}}
{{Taxobox
| name=
| image = Platylestes kirani male.jpg
| image_caption = male
| image2 = Platylestes kirani female.jpg
| image2_caption = female
| status =
| status_system =
| status_ref =
| regnum = [[Animal]]ia
| phylum = [[Arthropod]]a
| classis = [[Insect]]a
| ordo = [[Odonata]]
| familia = [[Lestidae]]
| genus = ''[[Platylestes]]''
| species = '''''P. kirani'''''
| binomial = ''Platylestes kirani''
| binomial_authority = Emiliyamma, Palot & Charesh, 2020
| synonyms =
}}

'''''Platylestes kirani''''' is a [[damselfly]] species in the [[family (biology)|family]] [[Lestidae]].<ref name=wol>{{World Odonata List}}</ref> This species is known from [[Wetland#List_of_wetland_types|coastal wetlands]] in [[Kerala]], [[South India]]. The species is named after the late C.G. Kiran, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the odonate studies in [[Kerala]].<ref name=Emiliyamma&Palot>{{cite journal | authors = Emiliyamma, K.G.; Palot, M. J. & Charesh, C | title = A new species of Platylestes Selys (Odonata: Zygoptera: Lestidae) from the coastal area of Kannur District, Kerala, India | journal = Journal of Threatened Taxa | volume= 12 | issue= 13| pages = 16854–16860 | year = 2020| url=https://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/article/view/5209| accessdate =2020-09-27 | doi=10.11609/jott.5209.12.13.16854-16860| doi-access = free }} [[File:CC-BY icon.svg|50px]] This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under the [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)] license.</ref>

==Description and habitat==
It is a small dull colored damselfly with apple green eyes. Its prothorax and thorax are in yellowish green color, paler at the sides. There is a broad black stripe on the dorsum of the thorax, straight on the inner border, outwardly expanded at the upper, middle and at the lower end, as in ''[[Lestes praemorsus]]''. There are a large number of black spots on the thorax. Its wings are transparent with short and broad [[pterostigma]] having white or creamy yellow inner and outer ends. Its abdomen is in olivaceous to warm reddish brown in color with black apical rings on each segments. Anal appendages are whitish with the superiors black at base, curling in at apices to meet each other. Inferior appendages are about half the length of superiors and ends at the middle of sharp spine of inner membrane like expansion of superiors, slender throughout its length, convergent and meet at extreme apices.<ref name=Emiliyamma&Palot/>

Female closely resembles the male in most respects, differing mainly in sexual characters, as in ''[[Platylestes platystylus]]''.<ref name=Emiliyamma&Palot/>

This species can be easily distinguished from ''[[Platylestes platystylus|P. platystylus]]'' which also common in [[Kerala]]<ref name=Rison>{{cite journal | authors = K.J. Rison & A. Vivek Chandran | title = Observations of the damselfly Platylestes cf. platystylus Rambur, 1842 (Insecta: Odonata: Zygoptera: Lestidae) from peninsular India | journal = Journal of Threatened Taxa | volume= 12 | issue= 10| pages = 16392–16395 | year = 2020| url=https://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/article/view/5834| accessdate =2020-09-27 | doi=10.11609/jott.5834.12.10.16392-16395 | doi-access = free }}</ref> by its broad black band on synthorax.<ref name=Emiliyamma&Palot/><ref name=Fraser>{{cite book|author=C FC Lt. Fraser|authorlink=Frederic Charles Fraser|title=The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma, Odonata Vol. I|publisher=Taylor and Francis|location=Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, London|year=1933|pages=[https://archive.org/details/FraserOdonata1/page/n72 59]–61|url=https://archive.org/details/FraserOdonata1}}</ref><ref name=Rambur>[[Jules Pierre Rambur]] (1842) ''[https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k61025298 Histoire naturelle des insectes. Névroptères]''. Paris. Roret. [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k61025298/f276.image page: 254] ([https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002003419 through HathiTrust])</ref>

This species is mainly found foraging inside the shoreline vegetation and occasionally resting on the stems or on the leaf blades of grasses and sedge.<ref name=Emiliyamma&Palot/>

<gallery>
File:Platylestes kirani male 2.jpg|Male
File:Platylestes kirani male dorsal thorax and eyes.jpg|Dorsal view of male, showing black marks on thorax
File:Platylestes kirani anal appendages.jpg|[[Cercus|Terminal abdominal appendages]] of male
File:Platylestes kirani mating.jpg|Mating pair
</gallery>

== See also ==
* [[List of odonates of India]]
* [[List of odonata of Kerala]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commonscat-inline|Platylestes kirani}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q99659042}}

[[Category:Lestidae]]
[[Category:Odonata of Asia]]
[[Category:Insects of India]]
[[Category:Insects described in 2020]]

{{Lestoidea-stub}}

Platylestes kirani - Revision history

->ShortDescBot: ShortDescBot adding short description "Species of damselfly"